Cover art
Background
My first introduction to Malifaux was through a gaming website called 1D4chan (now migrated to 1D6chan), a site which offered lore, tactics, homebrew campaigns, rundowns, and a whole host of other stuff on pretty much every aspect of traditional gaming. It’s far more informal and irreverent than the usual wiki-style presentation, which means that it isn’t for everyone, and from what I can gather can be a little polarising for the community. However, I enjoy much of the content, and I owe it a great debt of gratitude for introducing me to the wonderful world of Malifaux, which I discovered while browsing the Skirmish Level Wargames category in the middle of a particularly intense Necromunda jag.
While I was first pulled in by the Resurrectionists, once I had most of the Masters I wanted for that faction, my eyes started to wander and eventually settled on the Neverborn. The Dreamer, to be precise. I’d noticed him while reading through the 1D4chan article the first time, and was intrigued by the concept. For anyone who doesn’t know, in M2E the Dreamer was a little boy who lived on Earth and at night dreamt of a huge monster terrorising the population of a distant city- Malifaux. What he didn’t know was that the monster was an ancient demonic god who was very, very real, and had become aware of him, wishing to use the boy’s power as a gateway to Earth where he could wreak havoc on an unsuspecting population. However, when the creature attempted to take control of the child, the boy proved far more capable than it had suspected, and the boy gained control over it instead. Thereafter, the Dreamer spent his nights dreaming his way through the streets of Malifaux with his pet monster (who he has now dubbed Lord Chompy Bits) and a host of other nightmares, unleashing a terrifying murder spree on an unsuspecting local populace. I just had to get that crew box!
Of course, as soon as I had the set, my attention turned to other shiny new toys and it never got built, but at least now I have it…
Box back with the 3D renders
Contents
The Hide and Seek box contains nine miniatures on two large sprues, a more than respectable count for a Master core box. Six of these – the Alps and Daydreams – are pretty small, but Lord Chompy Bits is a big old brute, so it’s all swings and roundabouts. There are nine stat cards (with 2 sets of 3 duplicates to cover the Alps and Daydreams) as well as 5 upgrade cards, mostly for the Dreamer himself. Despite the high model count, the soulstone total comes to a meagre 23 points plus change with the upgrades, so more purchases will be necessary to fill out a full crew.
The sprues
Summary
The miniatures look like they’ll be amazing once built and painted, and the box art and renders are truly glorious. The only thing that lets this set down is the low soulstone count, but I’ll just take that as an excuse to buy more models!
Stat and upgrade cards